


Prickly

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 16:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12016407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: For PillarsPromptsWeekly #4 Roll for It. The Dice Gods must love these two much as I do, cuz I got Aloth/ water/ shadows for my prompts. :D





	Prickly

**Author's Note:**

> For PillarsPromptsWeekly #4 Roll for It. The Dice Gods must love these two much as I do, cuz I got Aloth/ water/ shadows for my prompts. :D

 

“So, how’s your day been?” Aloth asked, marking his page and closing the grimoire he’d been studying.

“ _Shit_ ,” Tavi groaned emphatically as she plunked down next to him on the wide stone lip of the reflecting pool and let her head fall back against his shoulder.

He raised an eyebrow in sympathetic amusement. “That bad? I thought you didn’t have too many petitioners to deal with today, _my lady_.”

Rather than grin or roll her eyes at his gentle teasing, Tavi groaned again.  “ _Don’t_ ,” she begged. “Next person to call me that might get their head put through a window and I _really_  don’t want that to be you.”

Aloth wrapped an arm around her shoulders comfortingly. “Do you want to vent?”

“ _Gods_ , yes,” she said fervently. “I may have only had a few petitioners that I knew of for today, but they had enough ego for a dozen between them. Also, they were all men seeking my hand. That’s always fun.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. “Ah. I suppose a reminder this comes with the territory would be-”

“Extremely unwelcome,” Tavi finished for him. She sat for a minute, staring at the water in the pool, her image reflected in its surface. With a sigh, she leaned forward, pulling out her pocket knife and a half-finished figurine. The knife bit into the wood, whittling more detail into what looked to be an animal of some kind. “I wanna go back to bein’ a nameless fuckin’ drifter, Aloth.”

“Too late,” he said sympathetically.  “But feel free to vent about these egotists who wanted to marry the La- Watcher of Caed Nua,” he corrected himself when she shot him a glare.

She snorted, guiding her knife around a curve to smooth out one of the figurine’s legs. “Where do I start? With the creep who made me seriously worry I’d meet an untimely demise due to ‘illness’ a few months after the wedding? The human erl with a blatantly obvious fetish for elven women, no matter how uncultured? Or the jackass who was _magnanimous_ enough to offer me the _honor_ of marrying a noble, since I’ve clearly moved beyond my boorish and provincial upbringing in pursuit of becoming a _real_ lady.”

Aloth winced and rubbed his temples. “Sweet Berath, do I even _want_ to know what you said to them?”

Tavi chuckled darkly, working the knife around the pointed face of her carving.  “No, no, and, um, Fuck off before I feed you your own balls.”

“ _Tavi_.” He wasn’t surprised, and hadn’t really expected anything else, but _still_.

“What?” She shrugged. “Honest to Hylea, city slicker, I do not fuckin’ care what the fuckin’ nobility thinks about me. After Yenwood none of ‘em are gonna try anything other than more diplomacy. I’m fine bein’ their ally, but I have no interest in bein’ their fuckin’ wife.”

“I wonder why,” Aloth said dryly, fingers idly tracing the design on his grimoiore’s cover.

“Obviously it’s because my boorish upbringin’ didn’t teach me much about monogamy,” Tavi deadpanned, grinning as she whittled out the ears of her figurine. “Not ‘cause I’m already spoken for and head over heels in love or anything.”

“Oh, obviously,” Aloth nodded, equally deadpan.

Tavi sighed, smile fading as she grew serious. “I s’ppose we will have to figure out how to explain an apparently unattached lady of my new social standin’ turnin’ down every marriage proposal floated her way...”

He was quiet for a minute, mulling it over. “Just play into the boorish provincial stereotypes. At worst they’ll label you eccentric, and you’ll have fun doing it.”

She paused her whittling long enough to lean over and kiss him on the cheek. “I like the way you think.”

The two of them sat in silence for quite a while, half-leaning against each other for support while Tavi finished her carving and Aloth gave more attention to his grimoire. It wasn’t until the shadows grew too long for detailed work or reading that they reluctantly shifted, getting to their feet and starting toward Brighthollow.

“Here.” Tavi held out the carving as they neared the door. “For you.”

Aloth blinked, caught off guard, and then took the small figure with a nod. “Thank you.” His fingers closed around the carving, rubbing over the zig-zag lines she’d made on its back. “Are you going to be insulted if I ask what it is, exactly?”

“Shit, no,” Tavi laughed, the shadows chased away as she pulled open the door. “It’s a hedgehog. I got lazy with the spines, ‘cause I didn’t feel like carvin’ each individual one.”

He smiled. “Understandable.” With the added light from Brighthollow’s open door, it was more obvious what the carved animal as supposed to be. “Any particular reason behind the gift, or is it just out of the kindness of your heart?”

She shrugged, following him inside and closing the door behind them. “You’re always willing to listen. You put up with me.” A snorted laugh escaped her. “Even when I’m prickly.”

He had to chuckle at that. “So it’s a thank you? Tavi, I never mind-”  

“No, I know you don’t _usually_ mind--be honest, city slicker, I can be a pain in the ass sometimes--but I still wanna let you know how much I appreciate it.” She bit her lip and glanced at the whittled critter. “B’sides, when you eventually leave to hunt down the Leaden Key, it can be somethin’ to remember me by.”

This time Aloth snorted a laugh, though he tried--and failed--to muffle it into something slightly more dignified. “As if I could ever forget you.”

Tavi grinned, raking one hand through her hair. “Well, _that’s_ comforting, Corfiser.”

“Believe me, you are... rather unforgettable.” He reached over to smooth her wildly ruffled hair. “In a good way.”

“A good way?” she teased, bumping her shoulder against his.

“The best way,” he amended, which earned him a playful grin and a wink as they went their own separate ways.


End file.
